The roast is in the oven. Dinner is planed for around six. Or seven. Depends.
Sounds awesome, Johnny.
I deep fried our first Cajun turkey and it turned out fantastic. Also had broccoli rice casserole, strawberry n sour cream jello, beer bread, champagne n pecan pie. Then I took a nap.
I just put a turducken in the oven. Will bake some potatoes in a while, the rice is in the rice cooker, and have a bunch of different veggies to make.
My father gave us the turducken at the end of November and we’ve been saving it for now. That is a big hunk of meat and hopefully will be very tasty as well. It’s the first time trying a turducken.
Well, due to bronchitis, our guest didn’t show up. Unfortunately, I’d already purchased a 7-pound prime rib. So I sliced off about a 2-1/2" slab of it and vacuum-sealed the rest for the freezer. Seared it good in a cast iron skillet, then put it in a 450 oven to finish. Excellent. The puddings rose nearly to the ceiling and were fragrant with herbs. The* au jus * was reduced to a silky consistency and mixed with pan drippings for a truly rich sauce. Green beans for veggie. Some malbec and zinfandel to go with it all. No dessert.
The damned roast cooked too quickly. Threw off my schedule. Nevertheless, we had a first course of escargots in mushroom caps with sherry-cream sauce and grated parmesan. Second course was the French onion soup. The main course of beef, Yorkshire pudding, garlic mashed red potatoes, and roasted Brussels sprouts with parmesan will be served as soon as the Yorkie pud is done. A few more minutes.
We’re stuffed like demons. There’s a quart of the mashed potatoes left, six good-sized slices of Yorkshire pudding, nine nice slices of prime rib (oh, so tasty and tender!), and half a quart of Brussels sprouts left.
Didn’t do the glögi, nor the straight wine. It would have been too much. I’ll do the glögi for New Year’s. SO is getting ready to frost the red velvet cake. And we have pie. Oy, veh…
My husband picked up a duck from Central Market on Tuesday, and left it in the fridge. I didn’t see it before it defrosted, so I made roast duck on Friday, along with stuffing and gravy and peas. I roasted a very small ham steak for myself, as I don’t care for duck.
Since I’d planned to make the duck for Xmas dinner, though…I figured another bird wasn’t in the cards. So I made chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes and gravy. And it was good. Very very good. I might have started a new tradition here.
Honey baked ham, spicy black beans, veggie samosas, roasted potatoes, cranberry relish, and a variety of sweets (cookies, chocolates, etc) that were gifted to us the last couple of days.
I made a korma curry: carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, onion, chicken (soy), beef (soy again) and basmati rice.
For dessert I’m having a gingerbread man cookie with vanilla ice cream (while watching Futurama S6).
We had roast pork, roast potatoes, peas, rolls, and a chocolate silk pie for dessert. Yummy.
PS: Thanks, WhyNot for the tip on the roasted sprouts!
You’re very welcome! I take it they turned out, then?
So I got to Mom’s house to find a cold rendered goose and her with a big smile saying, “I thought we could cook it together!” which is her way of saying, “I feel overwhelmed, would you take over, please?” :eek: Ah well, at least she’d done the most important part - the rendering the day before and letting it sit uncovered in the fridge for 24 hours. (The meat wasn’t greasy at all; rendering really does make a huge difference.)
It turned out very well, with a Port Wine glaze and a Tawny Port gravy. Made some crispy fingerling potatoes in some of the goose fat, and some simple veg sides.
My uncle and cousin showed up unexpectedly right around dinner time, so suddenly we had 7 people instead of 5. I was worried there’d not be enough goose to go around, but my uncle is apparently a great goose carver, 'cause he got every scrap off that little honker! There were even a few little morsels left over after everyone had seconds.
…and now I’ve got about 3 cups of goose fat in the freezer! 
They were quite nice. Brussels sprouts are my favourite side-vegetable, but I do get a little tired of boiled ones. Since the meat threw off my timing, I cooked them hotter than I should have, but they were fine.
I’ve never cooked my own goose. Too big for one person, so I do duck. What is this pre-cooking rendering of which you speak?
I have more than a half-quart of duck fat in the fridge. About the only thing I’ve used it for was cooking potatoes I sliced on the mandolin. The spuds were good, but very rich. I need to find other ways of using it in addition to the potatoes.
I’m going to have to try roasting them too. My standard sprout cooking method is to par-boil them and then saute them in butter and basalmic vinegar. I’ve also sauteed them in almond butter and one time tried a maple glaze but that was too sweet for my taste.
It’s based on the Peking Duck treatment, so it works for ducks, too. You boil a big pot of water and dunk your goose (or duck) into the water. It doesn’t have to be in there long at all - a minute at most. Pull it out, pat it dry inside and out and put it in your refrigerator, uncovered, for 24 hours. It will render out some, but not all, of the fat. This method, according to Cook’s Illustrated, tightens the skin so that it literally squeezes the fat out as it roasts. It results in puffed, crisp, amazing skin and meat as lean as you can get goose.
While you have the water boiling, go ahead and cut out the two large pads of fat you can see just inside the cavity. Toss the fat into the boiling water and let it boil until the fat melts, then turn off the heat. Just like when you make chicken stock, the fat will float to the top and you can skim it off. Save it, it’s wonderful, clean, rendered grease.
We also, as many recipes suggest, pricked the thighs and legs before roasting, although to be honest, I’m not sure it’s required with the Peking treatment. Use a rack and, once or twice during roasting, pour off the fat that accumulated on the bottom of the pan. Save it, too! This is roasted grease, which is just as useful as the rendered fat, but has a slightly different flavor ('cause it’s been roasted.)
Yup! Though since I don’t eat meat, I’ve had to compromise, and nut roast is our tradition - made by my ex, it’s better than any other nutroast I’ve ever tried (partly because she uses the juice from pickled beetroot to give it a lovely browny-red colour).
But that change is all I can stomach. I mean, I guess other people are free to eat what they want at Christmas, but if I were served up something else at Christmas I’d feel cheated. It’s Christmas dinner, not dinner eaten at Christmas. :mad:
I got given a sixpence in change by accident a couple of months ago, so put it in the pudding. Sadly, we were too full after the main course and starter, so haven’t eaten it yet.
I’ve also made Christmas crackers before, one year many years ago when there were a load of us, and put little personal presents and jokes in each of them.
Surely Paxo Sage&Onion stuffing? Red cabbage is something I’ve never seen and cranberry sauce usually seems to be on the table but hardly anyone has any.
Parsnips really have to go with the roast potatoes. USually some form of carrots too.
Got to have some quality gravy.
Christmas cake?